Ohhhhh, we’re in for a good one here…if “good” means “REALLY REALLY TERRIBLE.” I don’t even know where to begin with this one. Uhhh…okay, so it’s split into three “routes” that only run at certain times: a “commuter” route at rush hour, a “downtown commuter” route that barely runs at all, and a “local” route that runs midday from McDonalds to the Westborough Country Club (it sounds ridiculous just to say it). This is all done with one bus, keep in mind, so the timetable is just a complete mess. Luckily, there are two trips in the afternoon that do both a “local” and “commuter” in one trip, so we’ll be taking a look at one of those. Let’s check out the Westborough Shuttle.

First there’s a bit of a story…

So Nathan and I were taking an Uber from Worcester to the Westborough Country Club, but we were running late, and unfortunately we just missed the bus. Clearly all hope was lost…until we realized we could walk to Westborough Station and beat the bus by about half an hour. Oh good, great, you know it’s a great route when you can walk from end to end and beat the bus by a significant amount of time…

The bus…from above.

Of course there was no sign at the train station, but luckily the bus arrived early. As is common for these minibus shuttles, Nathan and I were the only ones on board. We left the station parking lot and took Smith Parkway to Otis Street, where there were a few huge office parks for a bit. The street led us to Route 9, which we merged onto.

Route 9.

Route 9 was lined with those classic…Route 9 buildings. Basically, there were just a lot of businesses and shopping centers with parking lots everywhere, interspersed with random bouts of marshland and forest. After going through an interchange with Route 135, the road narrowed from six lanes to four and the businesses and parking lots got smaller.

A side street.

The reprieve was short, though – after a mobile home park, the street widened again and all those huge businesses and parking lots were back in full force. The road did eventually get narrower once more, and after a brief section of woods, we exited off of it. Now it was time for quite possibly the most clustered bunch of deviations I’ve ever seen on any bus route…

It’s gonna be like this for a while.

We headed down Research Drive, which closely paralleled Route 9. After going by the BJ’s Corporate Office, the street became West Park Drive and curved away from the highway. It took us into the woods, where a few office parks hid behind the trees. We went down this road to the end, then turned around and came back up.

Oh boy, how exciting!

After going by that BJ’s again, we turned onto Friberg Parkway at an intersection with a very office park kind of pond next to it. This street took us past, surprise, more office parks. We curved around and then turned onto Connector Road, which was woods for the most part, aside from a few of those office park hotels you see in these kinds of areas.

A bit of a break!

Connector Road took us over Route 9 and around onto Computer Drive, past a small shopping plaza. As we came down alongside the highway again, we passed more office parks, as well as that BJ’s again on the other side. Next, we turned onto Technology Drive, which looped around past – sigh – more office parks.

The Westborough water tower, I guess?

We came back onto Computer Drive, running back along Route 9, and passing that stupid BJ’s one last time. We merged onto Route 9 and headed back the way we came just a bit before taking the first exit and pulling into the McDonalds parking lot. That’s right – the Westborough Shuttle deviates to serve McDonalds. This was also the start of the “local” route.

A road off of Route 9.

We travelled down East Main Street, passing some housing developments and a post office, then it became mostly residential. It wasn’t long, though, before we made that most classic of minibus shuttle deviations: one to the Westborough Senior Center. There were a few houses and offices when we returned to East Main Street, then it became some really uninteresting businesses with parking lots.

What a great shopping plaza…

After going under the Commuter Rail tracks, we turned into a modern outdoor mall sorta thing: Bay State Commons. It didn’t have any big-name businesses, though, aside from a Roche Bros. We then returned to East Main Street, which became West Main Street as we travelled around a rotary. This was downtown Westborough, and the street was lined with retail buildings.

A street in downtown Westborough.

There were some relatively dense houses on the other side of downtown, as well as a municipal building and a library. Soon after that, we passed the Westborough High School, which all inbound trips deviate to serve at all times of the day. The driver said he had never ever picked anyone up at the school, even during school hours. After some more houses, we finally arrived at the Westborough Country Club, which the bus literally deviated to serve. Oh yeah, that’s the perfect place to end a bus.

The bus at the scenic country club.

WRTA Route: Westborough Shuttle (Westborough MBTA – Computer Drive (Commuter)/Westborough Local)

Ridership: In early 2016, the route got a massive 26 people per day…meaning less than 1 person per trip. Oh, that’s some great ridership. The driver gave an even more telling report: no one uses this route except on the commuter trips. Very telling indeed…

Pros: Well, if you really want to find something good to say about this route, you could at least say it’s frequent – literally, this thing runs every half hour middays. Every. Half. Hour. For a route that connects McDonalds to the Westborough Country Club. I’ll just let that sink in.

Cons: Literally. Everything. Uhhh, let’s start with a simple one: the schedule makes absolutely no sense to look at. Give it a shot. See if you can make heads or tails of it. Also, the route really doesn’t serve anything that anyone would want to take the bus to. Other than that, literally every trip has problems:

• Morning Commuter Trips: I guess there’s nothing inherently wrong with these, but the way they’re written on the schedule is ridiculous. Why are all the trips shown as “outbound”? This is inconsistent from the evening commuter trips, which are actually written somewhat coherently.
• Midday Local Trips: Let me just repeat the route’s destinations: McDonalds to the Westborough Country Club. Every half hour. And all the inbound trips deviate to serve the high school. This is ridiculous.
• 2:05 and 3:15 Local/Commuter Trips: These trips are just stupid. Why does the route feel the need to serve the Commuter Rail station in the early afternoon? And why does it have to do the ridiculous office park loops even though no one is out of work; ergo, no one uses this bus to the office parks at this time.
• 4:20 Local Trip: So the bus has 15 minutes to kill at McDonalds before heading out on a Commuter trip. Does it A) take a layover like any normal bus route would, or B) do a completely pointless 15-minute round trip to Bay State Commons? Based on this schedule so far, I think you can guess which one it is.
• Evening Commuter Trips: These trips actually get people, heading to the Commuter Rail from the office parks, so it’s important that the bus times with the train. But no…the driver said he has to leave early so that he can get the commuters to the train on time, because the schedule doesn’t give the route enough time to get there. He said the commuters have missed the train before…with an early departure!
• Evening Downtown Commuter Trip: This one is just shown really stupidly on the schedule. The trip has three timepoints, but the schedule makes it look like it goes outbound to the second one, then inbound to the third! There’s an “MBTA Station” timepoint in the “Inbound” column…USE IT.

Yeah, I know it’s pretty deviatory, but this route actually serves busy malls that people would actually want to go to. Not to mention the trip takes about 28 minutes, so it would be an hourly service – a much more realistic frequency for a route like this. Also, get rid of that stupid combined local/commuter trip! What a waste of time!

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

I’m not trying to stereotype, but…are all WRTA drivers really mean? I mean, Nathan and I tried to go to the end and back from Walmart on the 11 twice. The first time, the driver wouldn’t even let us on, so we ended up on the 1 instead; we were able to do it the second time (with a lot of sass), but we got a lot of flak for it. Here is the fruits of our labor…

The bus at the end of the route.

At its terminus, although the route loops through The Fair Plaza to turn around, it doesn’t actually let passengers off in there – they have to board at street stops. I’ll, uh, save this for the “Cons” section. Anyway, we headed up Greenwood Street, which was mostly residential aside from a few offices here and there.

The stop where passengers have to get on; the mall is behind me.

Next, we turned onto Spofford Road, which was entirely residential. This led us to Upland Gardens Road, taking us through Autumn Woods, an apartment development. We turned onto Upland Street after that, which went up a steep hill past trees and houses.

A residential side street.

Upland Street eventually led us back to Greenwood Street, which was industrial for a little while. Soon, though, it became a dense, varied neighborhood. There were apartments, businesses, and other different kinds of buildings all along the road. After a school and some more retail, we turned onto the wide McKeon Road, then Tobias Boland Way.

Going over train tracks on McKeon Road.

This took us to Walmart, where we picked up some passengers. Next, we turned onto a road in the middle of its parking lot, serving the second stop in the complex. After that, we made our way around the back of Walmart, back up to McKeon Road, over Route 146, and up Providence Street.

Looking down a hill.

We went under some telephone wires and past a residential development, then it became mostly dense apartments, which continued as we turned onto Upsala Street. As we went over a hill, we also passed a school in between the residences, then we turned onto Vernon Street. This took us on a downward slope past dense houses and a few businesses.

Another hill!

We passed the Vernon Medical Center and a church soon after, but it was still mostly dense apartments. After going over I-290, the road became Green Street, and it was suddenly almost all retail. We went under the Commuter Rail tracks, then made our final turn onto Foster Street, which took us to the WRTA Central Hub.

The bus that wouldn’t let us on, back at Walmart…

WRTA Route: 11 (Union Station Hub – The Fair Plaza via Vernon Hill and Greenwood Street)

Ridership: This is one of four contenders in WRTA’s “1,000 Riders Club,” boasting the fourth-highest ridership on the system, with 1,108 per weekday. On my ride, there was strong ridership from shoppers, as well as local residents in some of the neighborhoods.

Pros: The 11 serves a lot of southern Worcester, including some very dense residential areas and some desirable shopping areas. It also does so with surprising frequency for WRTA standards, running every half hour on weekdays and every hour on weekends. It’s also great that the ridership turnover is so good, with people getting on and off along the whole route.

Cons: I’m not one to suggest a deviation, but directly serving The Fair Plaza would be way more convenient than the current street stop…not to mention the route goes in there to turn around! I mean, come on, really? Common sense! Put a stop in there! I’m also a little dubious about the every-hour schedule on Saturdays; I could see it getting pretty crowded with headways like that.

Nearby and Noteworthy: This route takes about the same amount of time to get to Walmart as the 4 (maybe a few minutes slower at most), but it’s a lot more frequent.

Final Verdict: 8/10
Despite the mean drivers giving me an initial bad impression of the 11, it ended up being a great route! It’s generally frequent, although it perhaps could stand to run more often on Saturdays, and it serves a lot of Worcester. Although come on, put a darn stop in The Fair Plaza already and stop inconveniencing people!

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

The 1 used to be the shortest, stubbiest little route, and I always wondered how the heck it could possibly get ridership. Ever since the demise of the 22, though, the 1 has been rerouted to cover some of the lost service, as well as extended to Walmart for…some reason. Sure, why not?

The bus at the busy Central Hub.

We headed down Grafton Street after going around a rotary. The street went under the Commuter Rail tracks and paralleled the elevated I-290. Soon, Grafton Street went under the highway and got pretty industrial, but a block later we made a sharp turn up the hilly Waverly Street.

A little parking lot.

We soon turned onto Providence Street, going further up the hill and passing dense triple-decker apartments. As we approached Dorchester Street, we went by Worcester Academy and some retail, then we turned onto Dorchester. This took us even further up the hill…and then back down, very steeply.

Woah!!!

Alongside Worcester East Middle School, with a park on the corner, we turned onto Grafton Street. There were a few businesses at a complicated intersection where we merged onto Massasoit Road, then turned onto Heywood Street. Now the residences were a little further apart, and there were more single-family houses in the mix.

A side street.

We passed a few housing developments, then outside of the Worcester Senior Center, we turned onto Providence Street again. After going by a field for a bit, we turned onto Holcombe Street, which was a steep road going back up the hill. Next, we turned onto Granite Street, continuing to ascend alongside more triple-decker apartments.

Along Granite Street.

Eventually, we arrived at the Holy Name High School, and it turned out that this was a deviation to serve it. Now the bus had to turn around, and it struggled to make it around the very sharp bus loop. We retraced our steps all the way back to Providence Street.

This is all the bus has to turn around??

We continued alongside that field from earlier, as well as more apartments – including some buildings. The road went by another school, then after some pylons, it grew a lot wider. We crossed Route 146, then turned onto one of its service roads, Tobias Boland Way. This took us to our final stop: Walmart.

The bus at Walmart.

WRTA Route: 1 (Union Station Hub – Mount Saint Ann via Providence Street)

Ridership: Back in its short state, the 1’s ridership was pretty bad: 265 people per day. Admittedly, our trip only had about 7-10 people on board, so it hasn’t increased too much since then.

Pros: The 1 definitely serves a purpose, and many of the residential neighborhoods it covers are dense. The schedule is generally sensible, with service about every hour, seven days per week.

Cons: It’s not quite every hour – the times shift by five minutes every once in a while throughout the day. Also, the route is really indirect, and it’s definitely not the fastest way of getting to Walmart. Speaking of Walmart, why doesn’t the route do the same loop that the 4 and 11 do? It’s really unclear that it doesn’t serve the stop along the loop, as Nathan and I found out when a bus passed us by because we had no idea it wasn’t coming our way.

Nearby and Noteworthy: Still, there isn’t much of note along the rest of the route, so…I guess I’m gonna have to say Walmart here.

Final Verdict: 6/10
The 1 is a fine route, serving local residential areas once an hour. It does have a few problems that could be ironed out, like the weird five-minute shifts or the fact that it loops around at Walmart differently. Still, these are relatively easy fixes.

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates